The Justice Department late Tuesday formally filed its case against Lance Armstrong and his company Tailwind Sports for millions of dollars that the U.S. Postal Service spent to sponsor the cycling team.
"The USPS paid approximately $40 million to sponsor the USPS cycling team from 1998 to 2004," the court document says.
The government said it was intervening to recover triple the amount of the sponsorship funds under the False Claims Act, which could bring a total of more than $100 million in damages.

The U.S. attorney who initially decided against pursuing charges against cyclist Lance Armstrong said Tuesday he has not changed his mind, despite Armstrong's recent admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

"That has not changed my view at this time. Obviously we'll consider, we'll continue to look at the situation, but it hasn't changed our view as I stand here today," Andre Birotte, the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, told reporters at the Justice Department in Washington.

A Chinese national accused of operating a website that distributed more than $100 million worth of pirated software has pleaded guilty in the case, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday morning.

The case involving Xiang Li, 36, of Chengdu, China, is "one of the most significant cases of copyright infringement ever uncovered â€” and dismantled â€” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations," ICE said Tuesday.

The defendant, who operated Crack99.com, was arrested by undercover U.S. agents in Saipan in 2011 and pleaded guilty late Monday to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and wire fraud, ICE said Tuesday.

Editor's note: Retired Gen. David Petraeus stepped down Friday as head of the Central Intelligence Agency - 14 months after taking the job, days after the presidential election and days before he was to testify before Congress about an attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya that left four Americans dead.

[Updated at 7:59 p.m.] Speaking on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront," Rep. Peter King (R-New York) called Petraeus' resignation "a real loss for the country, a real loss for the CIA."

"We're going to lose the best man for the job, but again America is adaptable," said the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "Put it this way, anytime you lose a David Petraeus, the country is not as safe as it could be."[Updated at 7:11 p.m.] The FBI investigated a tip that the woman Petraeus was involved in an extramarital affair with was Paula Broadwell, who co-wrote a biography about him, a U.S. official said.

Broadwell spent a year with Petraeus in Afghanistan, interviewing him for the book "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus."

CNN has not been been able to reach Broadwell for comment. It is not clear if Broadwell is the woman with whom Petraeus had admitting having an affair, leading to his resignation Friday as the head of the CIA.

The Justice Department on Thursday closed its criminal investigation of the deaths of two prisoners in CIA custody, ending a controversial investigation that Attorney General Eric Holder had approved more than a year ago.

The investigation, conducted by veteran Justice prosecutor John Durham, examined alleged CIA interrogation abuses in connection with prisoner deaths at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and at a secret prison in Afghanistan in 2002.

If the probe had led to criminal charges against CIA officers or contractors, it could have ignited a firestorm of objections by Republican lawmakers and the national security community.

Seventy-two law enforcement officers in the U.S. were slain in the line of duty in 2011, an increase of 16 over the previous year, according to an FBI report released Monday. The report does not include reasons for the rise.

The statistics collected by the FBI from police agencies across the nation reflects the varied nature of the killings. Fourteen of the victims were slain in unprovoked attacks. Eleven were killed while pursuing or stopping suspect vehicles. Six of the officers died while engaging in tactical operations. Five were slain in entrapments or ambushes, five others were killed while conducting investigations, and another five were killed after responding to robbery calls.

"Each of these losses is devastating," FBI Director Robert Mueller said in a statement, "and each one reminds us that the safety and freedom we enjoy come only at great cost."

The suspects used firearms in 63 of the 72 killings. That includes 50 by handguns. Seven were killed with rifles and six with shotguns.

The largest number of slain officers, by region, occurred in the South (29).

The acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and firearms is expected to resign amid the ongoing controversy over the "Fast and Furious" operation, two senior federal law enforcement sources told CNN.

Straw buyers were allowed to illegally purchase large numbers of weapons in the operation, some of which ended up in the hands of cartels in Mexico.

The FBI says it is merely "fine-tuning" some of its rules on conducting investigations, but the ACLU claims the changes amount to granting agents "broad new powers" to snoop.

The latest chapter in the ongoing struggle between national security and individual privacy rights is prompted by revisions to the FBI's "Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide."

The proposed internal changes grant the Bureau's 14,000 agents the latitude to search existing government and commercial databases without first opening an investigation or assessment. Another change would relax restrictions on when agents may search people's trash. Yet another change would remove a limit on the repeated use of surveillance squads to watch someone.

[Updated at 6:11 p.m. ET] In a letter to the NCAA disclosed Wednesday, the Justice Department said it has received several requests for an antitrust investigation into the current Bowl Championship Series system, and it wants information to help it decide what to do.

That controversial system makes it very difficult for teams in some athletic conferences to qualify for major bowl games, potentially costing millions of dollars in revenue to those not chosen.

"Serious questions continue to arise suggesting that the current BCS system may not be conducted consistent with the competition principles expressed in federal antitrust laws," Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney told NCAA President Mark Emmert.

The decision to release the letter came hours after Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a major opponent of the current system, demanded further consideration of the issue in a face-to-face appearance with Attorney General Eric Holder at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Holder responded by disclosing the Justice Department had sent a letter to the NCAA on the issue Tuesday.

Federal authorities Wednesday arrested dozens of mostly Armenian members of Eastern European organized crime groups suspected of a range of health care and other fraudulent activities, according to federal law enforcement sources.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer flew to Los Angeles to lead a news conference to announce the takedown and racketeering indictments later Wednesday.

A resident of the People's Republic of China has been convicted in San Diego, California, after a four-year investigation and prosecution on charges stemming from his efforts to find equipment to monitor U.S. government and military communications.FULL POST

A 29-year old woman who lived in Arlington, Virginia, last year admits she falsely claimed to be an FBI executive, even hiring neighbors as employees as she carried out her strange hoax for months, according to court documents released Tuesday.

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